Montpellier rally to beat plucky Płock
The first start of Thierry Omeyer in the VELUX EHF Champions League after his comeback to the former club was victorious, though two goal cushion what Montpellier Agglomération HB achieved in the first leg of the Wild Card knock-out against Orlen Wisła Płock promises all but easy path to the Group Phase for the 2003 winners. The second leg will be played on Sunday, 1 September at 16:00 hrs local time in Poland.
Płock took the best start, creating an early gap and leading by five goals after 15 minutes. The Polish tough defense forced the French to lose many balls, Marin Šego made a couple of important saves that turned into fastbreaks converted by the two wingers Ivan Nikčević and Valentin Ghionea, who scored four in the first half.
Apart from Diego Simonet, no one in Montpellier's squad seemed up to the occasion and it was very logical that Płock went back to the dressing room leading 15 to 11.
The beginning of the second half was a very different matter. Thanks to Arnaud Siffert's saves and Jure Dolenec's goals, Montpellier came back into the game making the score even at the 41st minute, on a fastbreak concluded by Issam Tej. But Montpellier's lead never got bigger than three goals, meaning that the return game on Sunday might be tougher than expected.
Patrice Canayer, Montpellier player: "This lead is the minimum we could have before going to Poland. In the first we missed some easy shots, while they showed all their experience scoring all their crucial ones. In the second, Arnaud Siffert's saves really helped us, but I think we're going have to grow up a bit more until sunday."
Marcin Lijewski, Płock player: "I would have signed for a two goals lead before the game. We were a little bit tired in the second half, while they were able to change players more. I'm still pretty confident that we will qualify."
Michael Guigou, Montpellier player: "We can have regrets about all the lost balls in the first half, and our bad defence as well. The second one was much better, and we created opportunities to score easy goals. We'll have to tighten up our defense in order to qualify."
TEXT: Kevin Domas / br
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